Lima woman arrested, charged with making 3 bomb threats

LIMA — The woman police charged with making three bomb threats to Lima City Schools posted her picture on a wanted poster on her Facebook profile photo offering a $5,000 reward for her capture.Amanda K. Hunt uploaded the poster that said “wanted dead or alive” on March 20, the day after a second bomb threat was called into Lima Senior High School. Her name was listed under her photo on the poster. Lima Police Department officers charged the 27-year-old woman with inducing panic, a second-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. She is charged with making bomb threats to Lima Senior High School on March 19 and Tuesday, and in the March 16 threat to Lima South Middle School, police said.Should Hunt, whose only criminal conviction locally is for misdemeanor theft in 2002, be convicted of three counts of inducing panic, she would face up to 24 years in prison.She is expected to appear in court as early as Friday afternoon at a bond hearing.Police records showed investigators traced the phone calls through phone records. They were able to get a rough location in south Lima and find the cellular company she used, but the phone was not listed to a current customer. Working with the cellular company, investigators were able to triangulate the caller's location. When officers raided Hunt's apartment, they found eight cellphones.Officers arrested Hunt at 1:30 a.m. at her apartment on South Reese Avenue. She had one cellphone on her.Lt. Jim Baker of the Lima Police Department declined to discuss details of the investigation or say whether Hunt has children in the district. Hunt did make a statement to officers, Baker said.“I don't want to go into what her statement was,” he said. Investigators also have linked Hunt to an attempted bomb threat Monday at Lima Senior. A female caller phoned the school and said the word “bomb” and the call was disconnected. Because of the lack of information, officials did not evacuate the school and the threat was not made public.Hunt listed having two children on her Facebook account and said she is a 2002 graduate of Blissfield High School in Michigan. She also has other ironic Facebook postings such as one of her favorite quotations: “You better kiss me cuz you're going to miss me when I'm gone.” She listed among her favorite movies as “Madea Goes to Jail” and “She-Devil.” As for her favorite television programs, those include“Bad Girls Club,” “Beyond Scared Straight” and “Deadly Woman.”Superintendent Karel Oxley said she had never heard of Hunt and was unaware if she had children in the district.Pupils and staff at Lima schools, especially Lima Senior High School, erupted in jubilation when the arrest was announced over the loud speaker. “There was a huge celebration with the breaking news there had been an arrest,” Oxley said. “You would have thought we won the state championship.”Oxley praised police officers for making the arrest, which she said she hopes ends the bomb threats. “There is a clear sense of relief. Even when these students were getting up every morning the conversations were about whether they were going to be able to get in a full day of school,” Oxley said.There was also a big sigh of relief the arrest wasn't that of a Lima schools pupils, Oxley said.There also was concern about the school system's reputation in the community, Oxley said. “Part of what is difficult for the Lima City Schools is we always seem to get a bad rap,” she said. “We get the majority of the press on stuff like this. It's very good to know it wasn't one of our students.”Pupils took notice of the black eye the school system was getting because of the threats, she said. “It was like someone is talking about your own family and you're getting bad publicity about something that is totally out of your control,” Oxley said. While Oxley knew officers were closing in on an arrest in at least one of the threats, she said she was surprised it turned out to be an adult woman. While saying that, however, she said it makes sense because none of the students at Lima Senior had any information on possible suspects, which she found unusual because children tend to share information.“Kids hear, kids talk and that was one of the pieces that was missing with these bomb threats. There wasn't any conversation about that,” she said. “That was a big thing we kept wondering why are we not hearing who was involved in this. Now we understand today because it wasn't anyone involved with Lima Senior.”Pupils were concerned about safety and had their ears open to any information that would put an end to the bomb threats that caused school evacuations and required them to make up missed time, Oxley said. “Our student body was really frustrated by this,” she said. Oxley said some people may not be aware of the effect a bomb threat has on a community, not just a school system. While it affects student, staff, parents and emergency responders, each threat was felt throughout the community.Following the last bomb threat at the beginning of the week, Oxley met with police, city officials and others to establish a plan on how to handle the next, she said.Baker said investigators were still investigating the Feb. 29 bomb threat to Lima Senior. They have not made an arrest but are closing in, he said. “There is a viable suspect and we're making progress,” he said. As far as investigators can tell, Hunt has no connection to the Feb. 29 incident, Baker said.Oxley said she just hopes the bomb threats are over, as do the pupils, to restore some normalcy. “I certainly believe with this arrest and this arrest being tied specifically to these last three, it certainly provides us with the opportunity to be about the business we need to be doing and that is educating kids,” she said.

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